Surveillance of Offshore Installations with Patrol Routine

Abstract

This paper covers the problem of monitoring and surveillance of Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) in the North Sea area of German Exclusive Economic Zone (GEEZ). The increase of risks connected to current geopolitical situation across Europe is clearly visible. Suspicious activity of Russian fleet in the North Sea, unidentified sources of underwater cables damage in Norway, or the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines near Bornholm could be recognized as Hybrid Threats (HTs). As a result, the current maritime risk landscape considers multi-factor hazards posed by variety of actors. Conducted analyses reveal that most of the German Federal Coast Guard activities take place within ca. 50 km limits offshore, in the areas of high-density traffic. This observation suggests a need for updated approach in case of surveillance of offshore installations located as far as 150 km from a shore, and even 300 km away in the future. The need is driven not only by distances exceeding typical operations or raised threat levels but also by new preventive function of German Federal Coast Guard aimed at protection of newly recognized offshore Critical Infrastructures (CIs). The article proposes two software solutions along with Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) background for solving the patrol route execution problem for these offshore locations.